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Yeah, I know, I know—it’s been a long time. Trust me, it bothers me more than it might bother you. Thing is, I could either cancel sessions and work less often, make less money and then I’d have more time to podcast! Oh, wait… maybe not.

I did have a last minute cancellation which was quite welcomed, given my cold and so I did have an unexpected window in which to record this episode—a kind of “catch up” in the studio.

I have to say, when I started this podcast series, I figured that I would do a few such “catching up” episodes but now I’m thinking I might rather do it in blog form. Hmm… maybe I will. We’ll see.

Sooooooo– since last time, I did go to Atlanta for Dragon*Con which was a complete blast. I met so, so many people who were so friendly and were fans of the podcast. It didn’t hurt that I was hanging with George Hrab (http://www.georgehrab.com) and Donna Mugavero (@MsInformation) most of the weekend. I was invited to be on two panels in the podcasting track. It was so nice to finally meet derek & Swoopy from the Skepticality podcast. (http://www.skepticality.com

I couldn’t visit Atlanta and not give my friend, Brian Stevens (http://www.brianstevens.com) a call. We went to lunch at one of those Brazilian steak joints. Wow! I like to call our little meet up a “meat up” because, man—bacon-wrapped chicken, bacon-wrapped beef, bacon-wrapped bacon… It was fabulous to meet Brian in person and I really enjoyed the conversation. Hey, Brian: c’mon, let’s have another episode of the Music Pro Show! (Like I should speak about getting a show out…)

A couple of weeks ago, I flew out to San Francisco for a meeting at Digidesign. I’ve been working with them over the course of a few years to make Pro Tools compatible with the VoiceOver feature of Mac OS X. It’s been a long road and we still have a little way to go but we can definitely see the finish line. For more information on the accessibility of Pro Tools for blind users, please visit
http://www.protoolspetition.org

As usual, I did attend the AES show in New York. I must say, although they tried to spin it in a positive light, the show is so much smaller than it used to be. Hey, I’m glad it’s still around and I’m confident that it’ll grow once again but it really did seem quite a bit smaller than in previous years.

I tried to attend as many workshops as I could. Of course, there are so many good ones that are scheduled at the same time—it’s impossible to see everything one wants to see at these conventions.
One of the panelists with which I was quite impressed was David Josephson of Josephson Engineering. (http://www.josephson.com) David was so thorough in his explanations and so confident that it made me want to just go out and buy a Josephson microphone. David’s an impressive and knowledgeable man with high standards. . No wonder he’s chair of the AES Standards Committee.

I did get to see a bunch of friends and colleagues—some old, some new. I met Sydney Galbraith who came down from Toronto for the show. I know Sydney through Twitter (@sydneygalbraith)—really nice guy with, I’m sure, a bright career in front of him.

Speaking of bright careers, I got to meet the legendary Bruce Swedien. Wow, what a warm and gracious person he is. I think of him as the Walter Cronkite of the audio world. Man, what a giant in the industry and he couldn’t be nicer.

There were a couple of people I didn’t get to see in person and I was bummed about that. I stopped in at the A–Designs booth to see Ronan Chris Murphy of Ronan’s Recording Show (http://www.ronansrecordingshow.com) but he wasn’t around. I stopped in again the next day and missed him again and it appeared that he wasn’t checking Twitter so I didn’t get to meet up with him this time. Also, John Grant of Granelli Audio Labs (http://www.granelliaudiolabs.com) had a whirlwind of a day on Sunday (his only day at the show) but I had to leave early and missed him. Next time…

One of the engineers on a particular panel just rubs me the wrong way to such an extent that it makes me ill. (eyes rolling) He keeps referring to the Sony 3348 as “the didge” which drives me up the wall. First of all, the format is DASH (for digital audio stationary head) and, if anything, the competing format, Mitsubishi’s Pro Digi should sooner be nicknamed “didge.” Further, the fact that this guy uses a 16-bit machine when most people have been using 24-bit for years and years is just inexplicable. Yeah, right, there was a 20-bit version of the Sony DASH as well. Hmm… I wonder if he broke down and stepped up to 20-bit… Anyway, I can’t tell you how nauseated I was by this guy. Honestly, I’m usually quite easy-going but this guy just manages to irk me so…

Since the previous episode, I’ve mixed and mastered ‘Shay Salhov’s record. I would’ve loved for him to have it mastered by someone like Bernie Grundman or Greg Calbi. Unfortunately, I guess it was a financial limitation that led him to having me master it. Alright, I did a decent job but it’s too bad the project couldn’t have been taken to the next level. It sure deserves it.

I sent Carol Sudhalter’s album to be mastered in Rome by Alfa Records. I’ll have to put together an episode regarding Carol’s project. It was really a great pleasure to work on it and the musicians were all delightful. Can’t wait to hear the final release.

We’re done with the tracking and editing for Libby Richman’s album, “Open Strings.” Mixing begins next week. Again, a wonderful group of players on this album.

George Hrab’s long–awaited “Trebuchet” is in it’s final tracking sessions. We still have a vocal intro to record and a horn section on one tune and then we mix. Having begun this project in the Spring, this is the longest period of time from beginning to end for a Geologic record. George says he’s not even sure of everything he has in the can—it’s been that long since we began the recording. Can’t wait to finish it up and get it out there.

Ah, the really bizarre thing I experienced this month was an auction for a voice-over studio in Manhattan that was going out of business. I had gone there a month before the auction because a friend of mine was going to be bidding on the entire studio. Since he’s in L.A., he asked me to go over and have a look at the gear and the space. They had a really nice collection of mics, preamps, some vintage compressors, computers, monitors, etc. Unfortunately, my friend bid too low and the entire studio was auctioned off piece by piece.

I went to the auction to see if I could get some choice pieces. I was quite disappointed to discover that a lot of the gear was already gone even before the auction took place. Apparently, a bunch of it was snatched up by the old employees of the studio. It was slim pickin’s. I did manage to pick up a lot of three Atlas SB36W stands for $90 and four Grace Designs M101s for $225 each. All in all, it was a pretty good deal but, given the amount of time I spent on the whole thing, I’m not sure that it was so extraordinary. Oh well…

I almost forgot—two other things that recently came through the studio door were the Wechter Nashville Elite from Sweetwater Sound and a pair of  Advanced Audio CM-12s.

The Nashville Elite is a really nice, colorful instrument specifically designed for Nashville tuning. I’m not crazy about the glossy finish but I’m really having a lot of fun playing it and I can’t wait to use it on some projects.

The CM-12s are actually fully-modified Apex 460s that I sent to Dave Thomas of Advanced Audio. I did do a quick shootout with a stock 460 and a vintage AKG C 12. I’ll save that one for another episode. For now, suffice it to say that I have a smile on my face

Hey, you know how I’ve said that the show notes can contain some additional/different information than the podcast? Well, here’s a great example of how scatter-brained I can be: I went through great lengths to describe the IAC isolation booths on auction at the ACB voice-over studio and how expensive they are and all. Of course, after all that, I never mentioned the best part—only one person bid on one booth and won it for only $200—a $16,000 booth for $200! Man… I was thinking to myself the next day that I should’ve bid on the rest and simply taken off the doors and interior fiberglass acoustic panels and sold them and on Ebay. Too late. Oh well… next auction.

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I recently posted something on Twitter that seemed to strike a chord, judging from how many retweets it seemed to generate. I said, “Sorry for the generalization but, microphones are to audio engineers what shoes are to women.” It’s an analogy that seems to work on several levels. Well, you can say I have a mic fetish but, I say, “What good engineer doesn’t?” I think I should start my own brand of esoteric, boutique mics called Fetish and the flagship model can be The Stiletto. (Shhh — don’t tell anyone. It’ll be our exclusive little mic.)

There are some mics you don’t necessarily reach for all the time and there are the work horses. You’ve got your Manolos of the mic world like the Neumann U 47 and then you have your 9 Wests like the SM57, MD421 and fat Heads.

So, in my search for the “black pump” of tube condensers, I happen to call Dae Bennett (Tony Bennett’s son), owner of bennett Studios (http://www.bennettstudios.com/news.html) in Englewood, New Jersey. I had heard some good things about the Audio-technica AT 4047 and, specifically, that it was used on all of the vocals on Tony’s “Duets” album. Now, I know it’s not a tube mic, but I was considering buying it but simply had to confirm that this mic was used on all of the vocals on that album. I had my doubts because I know that some of the vocalists on that recording like Sting and Stevie Wonder happen to use the Sony C800G a lot of the time. Dae confirmed that the AT 4047 was, in fact, used on all of the vocals except one. Turns out, what I heard was true — Bono always seems to use a Shure SM58 Beta in the studio.

Anyway, during our conversation, Dae mentioned the Apex 460 (http://www.apexelectronics.com/products.asp?cat=21&type=1&id=74). I hadn’t heard much about the mic so, when I learned that someone had modified a pair for him, I was intrigued and began researching the mic. I was amazed at the differences of opinion this mic caused.

I wish I had known about RecordingHacks.com (http://www.recordinghacks.com) at that point. It probably would have saved me a lot of surfing time. Matthew McGlynn does an amazing job with his Microphone Database (http://recordinghacks.com/microphones). It has tremendously useful links to the manufacturers’ web sites, spec sheets, owner’s manuals, etc.

At a certain point, I found Dan Richard’s side-by-side comparison (http://www.studioreviews.com/m16-460.htm) of the R-F-T Telefunken M16 and the Apex 460 on StudioReviews.com (http://www.studioreviews.com). Turns out that, apart from three resistors, the mics are identical. Of course, the $1,400 price tag for the M16 seemed a little steep as compared with the $229 cost of the 460. Telefunken re-released the mic as the M16 Mark II with the same price tag but allegedly upgraded components.

So, further research revealed that the Apex 460 was just a rebranded Alctron HST-11A (http://www.alctron-audio.com/encpShow.asp?id=70) which is a Chinese-made multi-pattern tube condenser that seemed to appear under many names including Nady and Carvin, among others. There seemed to be a number of modifications that some folks were doing like transformer swaps, changing the capsules, capacitors and tubes. There were some guys like Dave Thomas, whose company, Advanced Audio (http://www.aamicrophones.com), offered highly modified versions of the HST-11A and branded them with their own names like the CM12 (http://www.aamicrophones.com/tube_mics/cm_12.htm). In some cases, third party “mic moders” were using the Peluso CEK-12(http://www.pelusomicrophonelab.com/capsnmnts.html) as an upgrade from the stock capsule. Further, I discovered that Peluso themselves offered a similar mic known as the P12 (http://www.pelusomicrophonelab.com/P12.html).

All of these mics were essentially based on the legendary AKG C 12. Not being in a position to justify the cost of a vintage C 12, I found the Apex 460 at Full Compass Systems (http://www.fullcompass.com/product/314911.html) for only $181 at the time and ordered several. I compared the stock 460 to a pair of 460s I had modified by one of Dae Bennett’s friends. The moded mics were ever so slightly darker but, apart from that, all of the mics, even the stock models, sounded quite nice.

I always wanted to compare the moded 460s to an AKG C 12 so I called Chris Dunn at DreamHire (http://www.dreamhire.com) and he personally dropped one off at the studio –  not because I’m such an important client but, rather, most likely because I’m literally down the street from them since they’ve moved to Astoria (woohoo!).

These shootouts almost always reinforce what I’ve come to realize: the great Neumann and AKG mics of yesteryear were absolute marvels and achieved an enormously high standard even 50 years ago — a standard that is still strived for today. At the same time, there are plenty of new mics today that technically out-perform the vintage offerings. Thing is, almost none of those mics sound like they did the day they were made and many of them have been so heavily modified and repaired that, for all intents, they’re practically new mics.

I don’t know if I would ever buy a vintage U 47 or C 12. i mean, it would be great to own a piece of history, yeah, but in almost every shootout, I’m reminded that the vintage models, as nice as they are, aren’t necessarily the winners and are sometimes, quite frankly, the losers. I think I’d rather invest a little less money in a contemporary mic like the Peluso 2247LE (http://www.pelusomicrophonelab.com/22 47 LE.html) and be content owning an extraordinary, modern microphone. People will always covet the historic Neumann, AKG and Telefunken mics and they’ll always be collectors items for some. I’ll always respect and revere them but I think I’ll stick to, umm… the black pumps.

background music for this episode is by Sarina Bridget Bach from her debut album, “All Except One.” Recorded by Slau at BeSharp, June 6, 1999.
Sarina Bridget Bach – piano, Patience Higgins – tenor sax, Jesse Andrus – tenor/soprano sax, Hugh Fraser – trombone, Steve Roane – bass, Richie DeRosa – drums

Additional excerpts from: Joel Weiskopf, Marty Mabin, Libby Richman and Carlo Barile, Vinny pedulla and Slau.

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I was looking around for a new vocal microphone for myself. Of course, anything I’d buy for my own purposes would undoubtedly benefit my clients as an extra option when recording them. I always wondered whether it would be worth a $10,000 investment to find a used Neumann U 47 or something in that class of mics. Would it be impressive? Without question, it most certainly would be. Would it sound better than what I already had at my disposal? Hmm… I guess you’ll have to listen to the episode to get an idea.

I booked some time at Legacy Recording (which has since closed its 37th Street location). We recorded 7 mics into a Pro Tools HD system through a Millennia Media HV3D. The tracks were unlabeled and I had the engineer make a list of the tracks and their respective mics on a piece of paper. I didn’t know the results of the shootout until having heard the tracks at the end of the session.

Back at BeSharp, I added a few mics to the shootout using the same accompaniment track and recorded the additional mics through an Hv3D. So, the second round of mics weren’t recorded in the same room (actually, a bigger room than at Legacy) but it was all done in relatively close proximity in cardioid mode on all mics.

The lineup:

Neumann U 47

Neumann U 87

http://www.neumann.com

Sony C-800G

http://www.sony.com

AKG C-12VR

http://www.akg.com

Rode Classic II

http://www.rodemicrophones.com

Audio-technica AT 4047

http://www.audio-technica.com

Mojave Audio MA-200

http://www.mojaveaudio.com

Rode K2

http://www.rodemicrophones.com

Apex Electronics 460

http://www.apexelectronics.com

Studio Projects T3

http://www.studioprojects.com

Cascade Microphones Elroy

http://www.cascademicrophones.com

Yeah, it’s a little “apples & oranges” but I was just curious how a $1,000 mic would stack up against something ten times the price. Very interesting…

Hey, believe it or not, I’m finally on Twitter. If you’d like to follow me, search for

slaubesharp

I promise I won’t tweet too much — just studio and audio-releated stuff.